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A pop-up shop is temporary retail space used by one or multiple brands (shop share) to test new concepts, formats and markets in an innovative and original way without heavy investment.

Pop-up shops, by their ephemeral nature, encourage purchases through the FOMO (fear of missing out) effect. It is also now part of a strategy used by bigger brands to test a market or try new concepts. For pure play retailers it can directly connect them with their customers in order to engage or provide relevant research information and greater brand awareness.

The short-term retail concept is changing the traditional ways we shop.
Pop-up shops have become increasingly common as brands and retailers look to create new ways to heighten the brick and mortar arm of their operations. With the current demand for new retail concepts the property market is becoming more flexible through the use of technology, which enables brands to connect to landlords much faster than ever before and enable them to try short-term rents which is something that only started to happen in the last decade and is starting to go mainstream.

We Are Pop Up has created an easy process for brands to find and test spaces and for landlords to find tenants. It is the world’s largest network of retailers, landlords and brands collaborating on creative retail experiences through one platform. Known as the airbnb of retail, it is a booking platform for short-term retail spaces. Brands can also collaborate with each other to create retail experiences through brand-to-brand messaging and ShopShare.

Regardless of how successful a brand is online, nothing can replace the physical experience coupled with human interaction; pop-ups are here to stay and ultimately it will become a movement which will change the way retailers and property owners consider space, making it easier for businesses to utilise vacant spaces and create concepts never seen before.

In an oversaturated online marketplace, taking your online presence offline and creating a temporary pop-up store is a spectacular Christmas marketing strategy. Pop-up shops are a fantastic way to entice people into your store with the lure of being temporary. You get to build interest and excitement in your brand and test the popularity of your products face-to-face with Christmas shoppers. Add the incentive of Christmas to the time-sensitive nature of a pop-up shop and you have a compelling combination to grow your brand awareness and drive Christmas sales.

So, how do you make the switch from the online marketplace to a physical store, ensuring the benefits make the work involved worthwhile? Here, we give you expert advice on marketing your Christmas pop-up online. With our run-down of techniques for pop-up success, we’ll make sure you’re on everybody’s wish list — and that you ‘sleigh’ your company targets for 2016.

Retailers need customers to buy into their brand as much as their product, GfK stated in its report on the future of retail. Your physical pop-up store needs to seamlessly reflect your online brand. Creating synergy between your online and offline store will improve brand recognition, foster brand loyalty in your customers and keep them returning to your website for more, long after the pop-up has moved on.For a Christmas pop-up, this means ensuring your pop-store signage, colour and decor reflects the look and feel of your online eCommerce store. The stronger your branding is, the more buzz you’ll be able to generate online about your pop-up store and your online store. Create mood boards with potential designs for your pop-up store to see which ideas give the look and feel you want. You can read more tips for creating an effective pop-up shop here.

Increasing your online presence with your brand’s unique image leads to increased footfall in your store, which translates into increased traffic and conversions on your site over the Christmas period, even once your pop-up store is gone.

Add a banner on your website — A homepage banner advertising your pop-up shop event is a great way for your current website users to learn about the event. You could include a countdown timer to increase excitement and add a sense of urgency.

Write a blog post — Feature the pop-up event in a blog post on your website in advance. You can direct website users here to find all the event details. The blog post can also be shared on your social media channels and email newsletter. It’s also worth writing up a blog post after the event to show off how awesome your pop-up store looked.

Fire out an email newsletter — Many eCommerce websites will have built up a mailing list through email newsletters or subscriptions. Use your email newsletter to let previous customers know about your upcoming pop-up store.

In the run-up to the launch of your pop-up store, post promotional material about the store on your social media channels. Brands with a significant social media following will find the process of promoting and revving up to a pop-up launch a relatively simple job. However, if your social media following is low, there are still strategies you can use.

Create eye-catching graphics — Bold, eye-catching and shareable graphics that you can use on your social media channels are a must. Include location, date and time on the images, and create separate images to promote the ‘exclusive’ products you’ll be selling at your pop-up store.

Create a Facebook event — Facebook events can generate buzz about your pop-up store in the city where you’re basing yourself. After you’ve created the event, brand the page and post images. The aim is to create a well-branded Facebook event for your pop-up that will cause friends and family to invite more friends and grow organically. Use the event page to offer incentives to attend (like a discount or exclusive offer) to encourage this.

Create an event hashtag — A unique hashtag for your event can be used on Twitter and Instagram to keep track of engagement. Use this on all your own posts about the event in the lead-up and document the building of your pop-up store. Encourage shoppers on the day to post pics of themselves and their purchases on the day(s) your pop-up is up and running.

Create a Pinterest board — A pop-up shop inspiration Pinterest board where you pin images of the different products, design ideas, props and other inspirations for your pop-up store is great for brands with a Pinterest audience. This technique is particularly useful for home interiors, fashion and art brands.

Contact influential bloggers, vloggers and social media influencers in the area and invite them to an exclusive pre-launch party at your pop-up store. In exchange for an invite and a glass of bubbly, ask the bloggers to write a blog post about the event and ask influencers to post about your brand on their social media channels. Encourage them to take photos of the pop-up store and the products you have stocked there.

Their coverage of your event and brand gives you a chance of tapping into their devoted fan-base. This is a great way to make your business known to new customers and drive more people to your pop-up store and online shop during the Christmas period — not to mention that backlinks to your website from bloggers and online new sites will improve your website’s SEO, too.

I’m not usually one to recommend press releases, but pop-up shops make great fodder for local press. Write up a press release about your pop-up store and shoot it over to local news websites and papers in the area where the store will be, along with an invite to the pre-launch party. Pop-up shops are on trend and make for great local news articles right now. If you get featured online, you may also be able to gain valuable links back to your website, too.

Are you an eCommerce startup or small brand?

If you’re a new business or small brand and are unsure whether a pop-up store would be worth the investment, here’s a bonus tip. Pair up with other businesses in the local area to and collaborate on a pop-up store together.

If you’re an eCommerce store owner without an online presence in a specific area, you might decide to work with a brick-and-mortar store in the area to make sure your shop gets local advertising from them. If you only sell a few items, pairing up with another store is a great way to make sure your pop-up is fully stocked. You may even just pair up with a local caterer or foodie business for the launch party to gain them some local press coverage alongside your own business.

With effective online marketing of your Christmas pop-up store, your brand will see the benefits long after the snow has melted. Try using these strategies to market your pop-up store online this Christmas and enjoy the results that will give your business a jumpstart into the new year.

Author Bio: Charlie Marchant is head of digital PR and content marketing at Exposure Ninja. Charlie has years of experience providing eCommerce digital PR consultancy to companies, helping them convert the clicks they’ve been leaking into successful sales.

We are in the midst of a retail revolution. Customers are demanding more experiences and unique offerings and less of the department store feel. Out are the stuffy, basic shopping centres and in are the exclusive shops providing particular experiences and technology immersion. Anchor stores, a once coveted spot, are left vacant, forcing shopping centre owners to re-think their strategy and work to fill the empty spaces piling up. It’s a fight to stay relevant and impress shoppers with innovative experiences.

This last year has seen several announcements of middle to large department stores closing from the likes of Macy’s, GAP, and Office Depot. Even luxury brands such as Michael Kors are pairing back their store counts, realizing that overexposure does not always equal more profit. Shoppers no longer want the standard department store or luxury shop that can be found everywhere in the world. The allure of a luxury brand is exclusivity but if it’s too accessible, it loses that appeal. This movement is causing centre owners some financial pain. Shopping centres in the UK have seen a 2% drop in footfall since July of 2016. Shoppers are bored and as we are currently in a mostly trendless season, they have little incentive to go to a mall to fill their closets with things they already have. Shopping centre owners must find other offerings to bring customers back in and keep them.

Barbican in London

In a move to encourage pop-up shops to rent with them, big shopping centres such as Westfield Corp. and Simon Property Group are building “white box” stores. These stores will have a simple interior, able to transform for each brand that sets up there. These shopping centres in particular are allocating 5% of their leasable space to these places. Centres in Asia are doing even more to cash in on the pop-up store popularity. Hysan Bay in Hong Kong has hosted everything from a Nespresso pop-up shop to yoga classes hosted by Lululemon in an effort to get more people into the mall. Shopping centre owners are seeing the investment possibilities of these temporary shops.

People queue in a line at a Nutella pop-up shop in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

These pop-up shops are changing the “shopping centre experience”; breathing new life into an old concept. Many shoppers are tired of seeing the same concept luxury brands everywhere as they have oversaturated the market, making what was once exclusive so interesting. As well as welcoming back the once regular shoppers, pop-up shops are bringing in new clientele. The Kanye West pop-up shop in Northbrook brought customers from out-of-town that normally wouldn’t even be in that city, with attendees claiming they had driven quite a distance to get there. Rotating pop-ups encourage shoppers to keep coming back to see something different. We’ve seen successful examples of these shops for both well-known and obscure brands, each approaching the concept in a different way. As rent prices and vacancies go up, we are sure to see more of these strategies in use.

Pop-up shops are often thought of as a trendy way for Indie brands to get their name out there on a tight budget, but that isn’t always the case. More and more we are seeing big name brands using pop-up shops to their advantage. While lesser known brands may use pop-ups to sell inventory and increase awareness, bigger brands are using them to provide customers with a unique experience, educate, and possibly change perception of their brand. Household names like eBay, Kate Spade, and Adidas are using pop-up shops to entice millennials with experiential shopping and some companies are using pop-ups to change customer perception of their brand.

www.eater.com

Fruit of the Loom recently did an experiment with a faux pop-up shop to show how much consumer’s perceptions matter. The underwear retailer created a fake brand, “Früt”, and displayed the brand as an upscale lingerie company. Only at the checkout did the company reveal to customers that the underwear they were shopping for was the low-cost, packaged, Fruit of the Loom. The goal was to show consumers that it’s what’s inside the package that matters. Fruit of the Loom was able to show that regardless of the fact that their product comes in packs of five and can be found at discount retailers, the quality and look could be mistaken for an expensive, high quality department store brand.

Chobani is another example of a brand that used a pop-up to change customer perception. They found that while Europeans consider yogurt an ingredient for any meal, Americans only use it for breakfast. In order to change that perception, Chobani opened a café as well as several pop-up shops, that featured sweet and savoury meal choices using yogurt to show that it can be an ingredient used for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Their website even has recipes presenting new ways to use yogurt in your meal plans. In changing the way Americans think about yogurt and its many uses, they not only change perception but increase sales within its current customer base. For the largest seller of Greek yogurt in the United States, it’s a clever way to increase sales.

www.newyork.seriouseats.com

European grocery chain, Lidl, was having trouble convincing customers that although they were a discount retail chain, their products were high quality. Consumers usually believe that you get what you pay for, high quality equals high prices, and their opinions were reinforced by the bare bones customer experience Lidl provided. To change this, the grocery retailer launched a pop-up restaurant, Dill (an anagram of Lidl) , in Stockholm for three weeks. Michelin star Chef Michael Wignall was in charge and ingredients only found from a Lidl store were used. The mantra, “good food doesn’t have to cost more”, manifested and became the theme for the pop-up. The restaurant was a hit and fully booked from day one. Consumers started to speak positively about the restaurant and the company, resulting in a change of perception of the goods Lidl sold.

Because a pop-up shop can be used as an educational format, it is an ideal outlet for changing the way customers think about your company. Pop-ups use the five senses to engage customers and can change their opinion through unique experiences. A study found that 74% of consumers have a better opinion about a brand after an in-person event, such as a pop-up shop. When faced with a perception issue, try using the “show don’t tell” approach with a pop-up.

It’s a scary question for all brands just starting out, “What’s next?” You’ve had a successful run with online sales but it’s time to think about expanding and growing. Then the headaches come. “How much will rent be?” “Can I afford a place with a large footfall?” “What if I pick the wrong neighbourhood?” There are a million ways to go wrong and run your successful business into the ground. A pop-up shop is a great way to expand your business!

What are the benefits to doing a pop-up shop?

Save rent money – Pop-ups allow you to rent out a space for a temporary period of time, saving you money by not being locked into a contract. With a cheaper rent, you’re able to spend your budget on creating a unique experience for your customers. Both brand and landlord can benefit from a pop-up store. Filling a location that isn’t making the landlord any money can be very helpful while they look for a more permanent resident.

Test out different locations/New variety of customers – Not all neighbourhoods are created equally. Researching locations and neighbourhoods is always helpful but sometimes reality doesn’t reflect the google description. Your hipster brand most likely won’t fit in too well in the family oriented neighbourhood. Aren’t you glad you only rented the venue for the weekend! What better way to test the perfect location than to experience it first-hand?

Shop sharing – For those brands that don’t need a full space, shop sharing can be a great option. If you have a small amount of inventory, a few shelves or a corner of a store is more than enough space. Shop sharing can also expand your customer base by introducing your brand to people who are already shopping in your shop share location. You may also find the perfect brand pairing. Your wine tastings may be just what the customers in a specialty olive oil shop are missing. Pairing brands can help you find synergy with other companies and could lead to future projects together. Shop sharing is also great because you have built-in employees. Being present in the store every day isn’t always a feasible option, but through shop sharing there is someone ready to run the store.

The Dry Goods Store London, UK

Meet customers in person – Emailing can only get you so far when it comes to getting to know your customers personally. There’s value for brand owners to have face to face interaction with customers and allowing those customers to interact with the products in a way they can’t experience online. In store shopping is all about the human experience. Ninety-four percent of total retail sales are still generated in brick-and-mortar stores and having a physical presence could help drive business to your online store. It’s a great way to market and advertise your online business in a simpler and less expensive way than online advertising.

TopShop pop-up from Covalent Marketing

Create an urgency – What makes you click “order cart” faster than seeing the sale ends at midnight or the store is almost out of stock? A temporary shop creates that same urgency to purchase or attend. Nothing is more exclusive or sells tickets faster than having a supper club available for just one night. Customers are experiencing a once in a lifetime event and creating that fear of missing out is sure to bring crowds.

Wondering how to get started? We Are Pop Up provides the ability to book full locations, shop share locations, and enables brand-to-brand communication. Register your brand or location at www.wearepopup.com and get started on the pop-up of your dreams!

Over the past two weeks, We Are Pop Up joined forces with Parasol Projects, Creative CNTRL and Retail Access to create and curate a flash gift shop in the Lower East Side. And the clincher? From ideation to populating the space, the crew behind this pop up executed it in a single week. Entitled “The Store(y)telling Giftshop” the activation featured 15 of New York’s freshest brands:

The gift shop was an exploration in real-time visual merchandising; the entire experience featured a selection of curated stories that tied every brand into their narratives. On the pop up’s second day, we hosted a panel discussion at Projective Space at Freemans, where all the operational crew and all of the involved designers met to discuss the future of creative retail, and how traditional retail models have evolved into something more meaningful, bespoke and engaging.

Whether you’re a small retail shop or restaurant or someone looking to do something this weekend, get involved with Small Business Saturday this Saturday, 6 December. With medium and small-size businesses making up over 99 percent of all UK businesses, shop local this Saturday and support small businesses.

What is Small Business Saturday?

Now back for its second year, Small Business Saturday is a UK-wide, non-political and non-commercial campaign looking to promote small businesses and encourage consumers to support and ‘shop local’ within their own communities.

Many businesses that consist of emerging artists, designers, and chefs are shaping the future of the high street and here at We Are Pop Up, we work with hundreds of small businesses to launch their pop up every day. Here are a handful of shops popping up this week that we definitely suggest you check out.

Brighton Fashion Week’s Christmas pop up

Brighton Fashion Week just launched its first pop up store, teaming up with upcoming talent to help shoppers find their perfect one-of-a-kind Christmas gift. The boutique, featuring over 35 national and international emerging designers, artists, makers, and creators will be selling clothing, accessories, homewares, and greeting cards.

Lizzy Bishop, Director of Brighton Fashion Week says: “After the success of Brighton Fashion Week 2014, the next logical step in helping to support the immense talent at the catwalk shows was to provide a space where people can try and buy the outfits”

The Dandy Lab pop up

Step up your shopping experience and visit the world’s first talking store, the Dandy Lab, a new gentleman’s lifestyle store enhanced with new technology to make shopping more interactive and personalised. Shoppers can now get recommendations and styling tips, tailored to their individual tastes with smart mannequins and interactive digital plinths.

Petit Miracles Hub pop up

Petite Miracles Hub is home to small businesses with entrepreneurs and creators coming together to not only build their own entrepreneurial skills but also to showcase their one-of-a-kind pieces from recycled candles to handmade jewelry.

Experience a different way of shopping by learning first hand from the makers themselves. They offer more than just shopping too. Join the business retail hub as they hold workshops, special parties, and a retail theatre for visitors to enjoy.

Have you ever spent a day walking countless hours in and out of high street shops, sifting through piles of clothing, and trying on clothes just to put them back on the rack? It sums up the old shopping experience. Well, out with the old and in with the new. Dubbed the world’s first talking store, The Dandy Lab aims to revolutionize the entire shopping experience with new innovative and interactive technology.

Interactive shopping

Launched on the 1 December and running for six weeks before the launch of its extended pop up shop next Spring 2015, Pop Up at No.9 is a new gentleman’s lifestyle multi-brand store that aims to make the shopping experience easier, engaged, and more personalised. Co-founders Peter Jeun Ho Tsang and Julija Bainiaksina, whose main inspiration is to “collaborate to innovate”, developed a new technology that employs interactive digital plinths by CASA as well as smart mannequeins by Iconeme to deliver such an experience.

But how does this new interactive pop up shop work?

The experience starts at the front of the shop as windows can recommend styling tips and suggestions, which are tailored to the customer. From there, customers can enter the store and learn more about the suggested products. They can even try it on through virtual mirrors located throughout the store. The concept store is will also feature a new social corner, where customers can share their shopping experience with friends through Facebook or Twitter right in the store.

The concept shop, which was designed by Daniel Peters (BBSClothing, British Fashion Council, Orlebar Brown, A Sauvage) and set designer Thomas Bird (GQ), will feature a range of carefully selected British menswear brands including Alice Made This, Tom Hide, and Hentsch Man selling footwear, umbrellas, and stationary.

For The Dandy Lab, it’s not only about delivering a product but providing an overall experience showcasing British craftsmanship. With plenty of in-store events such as workshops, meet the maker sessions, and late-night shopping, the store delivers a wide range of services people that creates a well-rounded shopping experience.

Glassworks was born from the idea to create a fashion destination for modern women. They offered up both of their retail shops as a ShopShare – one in the heart of Shoreditch and the other in Dalston – to work with other collaborators who share and fit the brand vision. They have now hosted over 12 fashion and accessories ShopShare pop ups, from the likes of Be-Snazzy, Urbiana and Suite Hazen.

We caught up with Irena Gordon and Lauren Lewis, Director of Glassworks Studios about their experience so far and why hosting a pop up works for them.

It offers something new

Hosting a pop up works well for a new brand as well as the space. It introduces new brands and concepts and at the same time, it creates buzz for the store itself. “It injects a sense of excitement and change, which customers really react well to. We learn from every brand that is in store and it can be the start of a longer partnership”.

Collaborating with new brands also helped Glassworks get to know their own customer base. “We learned more about our customers. What they like, or what they don’t like. How much they are willing to spend and adapt to changes in the store.”

Every project is different

With ShopShare, Glassworks are able to host several brands at one time. Since “every project is different”, according to Irena, “it can be completely different to the way you are used to working but it’s a great way to adapt and learn. You learn as time goes on exactly what type of collaborations work and what doesn’t. It’s also a great way to introduce new customers to the store and see a real mix of clientele.”

“We use the We Are Pop Up platform to find new brands to partner with in our London stores. It is simple to use and has introduced us to great brand partners.”

Keeping an open mind to the type of collaborations is also essential to getting the most out of the pop up experience both for landlords and tenants. Irena notes, “The best collaborations are ones that feel fitting for the brand and store integrally, even if it’s a concept that’s never been tried before.” Glassworks keeps an open mind when choosing who to work with, “anything from clothing to coffee and juice brands.”

Be true to your own brand

The Glassworks team have some invaluable insights about ShopShare:

“While seeking out new experiences may be exciting, it’s also important to stay true to your own brand when collaborating with others. Ask yourself the following questions:
• Does it feel right or your store?
• Would your customers appreciate their presences?
• Is there scope for future projects?”

Irena’s take-home advice is to “never do anything that feels out of your comfort zone. It’s a reflection on your brand too.”

As for brands that wish to rent out a space, it’s always important to speak to the landlord about your ideas and vision for your pop up. “Be open to alternative ways of working and conditions. The landlord will always try to accommodate requests, but be respectful of what is actually possible. It’s a journey for you both.”

New York-based photographer, Ricky Chapman, is in London from 6 to 9 November to launch the follow up to his portrait series, Parallax. Comprised of just two shots per subject with no retakes or retouching except for contrast, it’s a way to capture people as well showcase photography as a medium and process. We had a quick chat with Ricky on his how this project came about.

What was the inspiration for this project?

It was half a challenge for myself and a bit of a front to the industry. I had done a ton of commercial work such as portraiture for school and other people. There was something about it that was making me crazy and I needed to do something that was for myself. In New York, I have this great group of people that I care about and I wanted to start photographing them.

At the same time, I was really frustrated in the way the photo industry works nowadays with everything that’s so quick quick quick. Everything is digital and people don’t really understand the craft.

I said, “I’m going to take two photos. I wanted to do something that had a common thread.” You have a front-on portrait and I wanted to give another aspect of each person. But the actual each set, there’s only 2 photographs taken. If I make a mistake, there’s only two recorded and kept. There’s no retouching and it is as it is.

Why did you choose London as the follow up from your first series in New York?

That would go back to George. She was kind of the inspiration to do this here in London. She was living here in London and I was living in New York. It was a way for me to put myself here for a longer period of time and to give her time.

You were able to fund this project through Kickstarter. How was that experience for you?

It definitely raised the money that was needed to get here and it took care of aspects such as shooting, travel, post-production and the show. I was glad to do it because aside from raising the money, it was able to get the project out in front of people before it even started. It was nice.

Seeing those people who supported your campaign, even if it was just $5, come out in person and see your work is meaningful. Knowing that they can now see this thing that they were a part of and that it wasn’t something that stayed online. It’s cool to see something online but to be able to stand in front of something physically and look at it; it’s a different experience.

What’s next for Parallax or any upcoming projects?

I’d like to take the next series to a place I’ve never gone before or somewhere I don’t speak the language. Maybe someplace like Moscow or some place in Brazil. Also maybe looking into starting a whole new project, something with colour, maybe.

Ricky’s book will be available for sale. Orders of portraits and posters are also available.